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It appears that takeover negotiations between Broadcom and Qualcomm have come to an abrupt ending. Per Bloomberg, Broadcom has announced that it’s no longer attempting to buy its US-based rival, Qualcomm. In a statement, Broadcom said that it was “disappointed with this outcome,” and will no longer appoint nominees to Qualcomm’s board.
If Broadcom and Qualcomm were to merge, it would have been tech industry’s largest deal ever. Both companies had not settled on a price yet because Qualcomm kept saying the buyout price is undervaluing them. Negotiations apparently reached as high as $165, but still nothing came out of it.
Negotiations took a surprising turn on March 12th, when the White House issued an order to block the purchase. The move followed a letter from Committee on Foreign Investment, which said that by letting a foreign company take control of Qualcomm, it would pose a national security risk.
Broadcom on its part had intended to move its official HQ to the US, which would reduce the amount of oversight necessary to make the takeover work. But the president ordered a block for any further attempt and disqualified any of Broadcom’s potential direct appointees, essentially declaring the deal dead.
Broadcom said that it will “continue to move forward with its redomiciliation process,” and will still hold its special stockholders meeting on the March 23rd.
